Taxi goes airborne, crashes into entrance of busy subway station

Shocked pedestrians eye taxi that crashed through a fence and slammed into the very busy IRT subway entrance at W. 72nd St., injuring only three people.

An out-of-control taxi went airborne in Manhattan on Tuesday – smashing through an iron fence and crashing into the entrance to a busy subway station.

Three people were injured, but amazingly, no one was seriously hurt or killed at the intersection of W. 72nd St., Amsterdam Ave. and Broadway at the start of rush hour.
“Lucky isn’t the word,” a police source said. “Thank God. Dozens could have been taken out.”
Only the cabbie, his passenger and pedestrian Mucuy Bolles, 39, had to be treated for injuries after the 4 p.m. smashup.

Bolles, 39, of West Haven, Conn., is a modern dancer and was hit in the lower leg by debris, opening a gash that required five stitches.

“It was a shock,” Bolles said. “I didn’t realize I was hurt until I saw the blood.”

The crash happened when the cabbie lost control driving north on Amsterdam Ave. The cab careened off the roadway and nearly cleared a 4-foot-high wrought-iron fence separating a traffic island from the intersection.

“He hit the fence, and he went flying,” said Samuel Valerdi, 34, of Brooklyn.

Then the taxi smashed into a small building that houses the entrance to the 1, 2 and 3 subway trains.

“It hit like a bomb,” said newspaper vendor Mohameed Raza, 22, of Brooklyn.

Pedestrians ran for their lives, but “luckily no one was coming out of the subway at the time,” said David Spiers, 44, a Bronx electrician working across the street.

After the crash, the cabbie sat on the ground, holding his bleeding head. His 42-year-old passenger was lying on the ground, also bleeding from his head, Spiers said.

The NYPD Highway Patrol was investigating the crash, but no summonses were issued, police said.
Bolles was supposed to fly to Chicago today for a dance festival, but doctors told her to scrap those plans because of her injury.

Her fiancé, Chris Makay, 39, who was by her side during the crash, knows things could have been much worse.
“If we were a couple of steps forward, who knows?” he said.

Our partners

And clients

About Us

Every day, YellowCabTaxi™ connects thousands of passengers with a vast network of licensed and insured professional cab drivers. We will list your lost property on this website, but cannot guarantee that your lost item will be returned to you. This website is not associated with the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission. We offer the most reliable global professional driver service at the most competitive rates in over 50 countries.